An Investigation into the factors that affect a squash ball bounce

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Introduction

Will Busby Squash ball Investigation Coursework

An Investigation into the factors that affect a squash ball bounce

Introduction

I am going to investigate 3 different factors that will affect the bounce of a squash ball. Gravity pulls everything down to the ground; if an object falls then gravity pulls the object back down to earth. In the investigation I will be investigating how the bounce of the ball is different from different heights or if the bounce differs on different surfaces and how the bounce is different at different temperatures e.g. If the ball is hotter then the particles inside the ball will obtain more energy then collide with each other and the walls of the ball more often causing more pressure on the ball so when the ball bounces there will be more pressure on the walls of the ball causing it to bounce higher. If the ball is dropped from a higher height then gravity will cause the ball to fall at a higher velocity and have more gravitational and kinetic energy and when the ball bounces the pressure will be greater on the ball so the ball will bounce higher. If there is a different surface like wood then the ball would bounce higher than it would on carpet because the particles are more packed together so the ball will bounce higher.

Factor 3 (Different temperatures)

Evaluation

The experiment went well except for when we couldn’t get the water baths so we was forced to do an alternate method but we made sure that when we could get the water baths we did the experiment again to get better and more accurate results (we included the alternate method in the graphs to compare the difference). The rest of the equipment was easy to supply and set up. We got lots of anomalous results for the temperature experiment when using the alternate method maybe due to over or under heating or by a human error e.g. waiting too long to bounce the ball. We got 2 anomalous results for the height experiment which are circled on the graph maybe because the height wasn’t properly measured, the only anomalous result for the water bath method of the temperature was the 0°c reading because we only did that to get more of a range of results and we never done 10°c and 20°c so the mark on the graph was different or because the temperature wasn’t completely at 0°c because we used ice and the temp wasn’t completely at 0°c which maybe to cause it to bounce higher.

To improve the investigation I could of done the experiments maybe just once more to get even more accurate results or I shouldn’t of done 2 factors instead of 3 so I could of concentrated more on the other factors.

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